


hubris

by VioletThePorama



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Black Heron is great actually, Bradford is a jerk, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, POV Second Person, Takes place during finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 13:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30089535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletThePorama/pseuds/VioletThePorama
Summary: Black Heron always knew what the outcome would be.Just a character study based on the finale
Relationships: Black Heron & Bradford Buzzard (Disney)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	hubris

Bradford Buzzard approaches you moments after you’re locked up in SHUSH security. You locked eyes with him as he lurked around the elevators, just before he came down to meet you. For an instance as he approaches your cell, you think perhaps he knows of you already, that your reputation proceeds you.

Then you find out that he’s simply desperate. He doesn’t hold himself as such, but you can pick it apart from his proposal, as he pitches evil to you like he’s in a board meeting. He blatantly watches for your reaction like he’s used to receiving refusals on this project, something he already has cards printed out for. From a dull individual like him, you figure that what he’s showing as you ask after the name is full-blown excitement. There must be something like hope in the look he directs at as he tries to convince you to be his new business partner. Like you could possibly refuse such a fun opportunity. You fiendishly add on an ‘F’ to his organization, and watch as he scowls, withdraws. 

He caves within seconds. Bradford  _ needs _ you, and he knows it. Well, he needs a villain, anyway. You’re just the one that’s in the same vicinity as him. But you can’t refuse a baby villain his opportunity to shine. It’s no contest really, freedom over captivity. Even with a vulture hanging over your shoulder, there’s scores of entertainment that can be had. 

You can see the way Bradford shifts, crafts, and sneaks. He’s practiced in deceit, and full of hate, hate,  _ hate _ towards anything not safely squared away. When you welcome him as a comrade in arms, as a villain, he directs the most disgusted, vindictive glare you’ve seen all month in your direction.

Immediately, you realize that you know how this will end. You tell him so, delightedly. He makes a wonderful villain, so wrapped up in himself and his order that he doesn’t see what he’s already become, even before you were there to help him along. Bradford sneaks in and out of the shadows, tricking, and twisting words to his advantage. He’s a confident to his greatest enemy, someone kept closer to the old geezer than friends. 

Over the years, Bradford gives you order after order. Each one comes with a restriction. No more carving your face into national landmarks. No more blowing up the moon. No more harvesting energy from the center of the earth to power death lasers. And no more  _ intelligence rays _ . You bypass as many limitations as you can, either working between the lines of his orders, or going directly under his nose. But you never put off what he asks for. Never do you turn down what projects he gives you, nor do you ever talk him down from an idea. Instead, you offer more moving parts and add onto what he proposes. 

Bradford doesn’t see how magnificently devilish he could be, given time. It’s something that he continues to grow into as you work with him and it is something that he stays purposefully blind to. It does take time, though, for him to become less hesitant. Slowly, as you listen in and put pieces together, you understand that his goals begin to shift away from revenge and childish anger at his grandmother (though those were still good grounds for villainy) and become something more his own. 

The vulture becomes more focused, laser sharp. He’s always been scarily genius, horrid and sharp and boring. The worst kind of villain, one oriented on the side of order, one who thinks he’s part of the greater good. 

You tell him what he is, and he refuses. For you, shirking off your true nature would take the fun out of it, but for him, it’s like a game. Him defending his actions feels like something you can one day overcome. As Bradford’s closest partner in crime, you step forward, and tell him that he’s evil. 

Your move. Checkmate. Pass go and rob the bank. Or however those nerd games go. He responds in kind, with insults and threats and flat-out, bored-sounding denials.

He has lairs, filled with employed villains and lackeys and kids you pick up from prison busts. There are stolen artifacts, unethical creations, enslaved magical beings, and recordings from bugs and hidden cameras, all there on the vulture’s orders. You happily supply him all that he asks for, and more. 

Just because he spends all day pushing pencils and making profits, he thinks himself above everything that you’re doing for him, and he scolds you for your frivolity often. But he still works in margins and plots and schemes, so you have fun of your own whenever you can.

Finally, Bradford pins down Scrooge’s family. The brats are tied up downstairs with the clone-brats that think they’re more important than they are. (They aren’t so dissimilar from you, in retrospect.)

He bursts out of the building, clad in a suit with one of the prized, stolen relics swinging in his hands. The sword only amplifies his anger, and it’s so wonderful to see. 

The vulture almost wins, and he gets cocky, like any good antagonist would. He has a speech, a motive, and his prized papers bound to laws and magic. 

You think for a moment, that Scrooge would have made a good villain too. Perhaps he is one already. The adventurer cons Bradford into throwing a few members of his team to their death. The old duck believes that just because the FOWL employees were on the side of evil, that their deaths shouldn’t weigh on him. It’s something that could be picked at, given time. If he were stripped away from his family again, it would be easy.

Laughing at the misfortune of the vultures, you almost don’t realize that your lovely little villain has come for you as well. You can’t help but smirk as you fall. It isn’t as memorable if you spend your last few moments panicking rather than doing.

You tell him who he is.

Bradford was never really your creation, you just nurtured something that was already there, and he knows it. 

None of this was really a surprise. After all, you had always known how it would end. 

**Author's Note:**

> I keep thinking about the scene where Bradford drops her off. Like dude that's your villain bff! It was kind of expected after he dropped the first guys off, but still. I really enjoyed the dynamic they had, but I think this lends itself to some interesting stuff too, especially since they knew each other for so long.
> 
> Sorry it's short, I impulse wrote this directly after watching the finale.
> 
> There was other really good stuff there too, but some of it felt a little rushed. Still quite enjoyable. 
> 
> Oh btw I want to see some people making Black Heron and May and June interacting because crime kids would be funny.


End file.
